Ceol's Craic Film Club The Bridge Rising

In the run up to our Ceòl Mòr Ostaig event, Film Club @ Ceòl ’s Craic is screening the powerful documentary The Bridge Rising. This “feel good story of a modern rebellion” tells the inside story of the 10 year battle against the UK’s first Private Finance Initiative: the Skye Bridge Tolls.

The film documents the islanders’ campaign against the tolls and their struggles against the Government and the Bank of America. Packed with humour and twists, it takes you behind closed doors to hear from protagonists from all sides of the battle: from protestors, police and politicians to the toll collector and the bridge’s engineer, revealing in their own words things they could never say at the time.

The private toll bridge became the only way on and off the island, and metre for metre became the most expensive toll bridge in the world. It led to one of the longest uprisings in modern Scottish history and after nearly a decade of campaigning, defiance, arrests and court cases, the toll booths were finally abolished.

The Bridge Rising premièred at this year's Glasgow Film Festival, in its first ever collaboration with Celtic Connections, marking the 10th anniversary of the end of the tolls on the Skye Bridge.